


Shattered Illusions

by triste



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-22
Updated: 2012-11-22
Packaged: 2017-11-19 06:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/570448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triste/pseuds/triste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hikaru gets a taste of reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shattered Illusions

Title: Shattered Illusions  
Author: Triste  
Fandom: Hikaru no Go  
Pairing: Yongha/Hikaru  
Rating: PG  
Warnings: Humour, gratuitous anime references  
Status: Complete  
Disclaimer: Not mine

~~

Hikaru was taken-aback when he left the Go Institute one Thursday morning to find a group of girls waiting outside. There wasn't an event scheduled as far as he knew and, unlike Touya, the opposite sex had never found him particularly appealing. Hikaru had never had any interest in girls and they'd never shown any interest in him. He'd assumed that was the way things would always be, so it was somewhat confusing when they suddenly turned to him like a pack of lionesses about to corner a wounded wildebeest.

"There he is!"

"You can tell by the hair!"

They swarmed around Hikaru before he had time to be insulted, and his offence quickly turned into fear. He didn't recognise their uniforms, although he assumed they were from a local high school. They certainly seemed to be around his age, but while there was only one of him there were many of them. He was almost ready to panic and convince himself that they were part of some sort of hate mob when he took a closer look at their faces. He'd seen the same expression before on Akari, the one that started off as sweet and hopeful ("Guess what! Today is my birthday!"), but could switch to dark and murderous faster than the male brain could comprehend ("What do you mean you didn't get me a present?"). In short, it was the kind of expression he had learned to be wary of, but why a bunch of strangers were directing it at him was beyond Hikaru.

"Um... can I help you?" he asked cautiously.

"You're Shindou Hikaru, aren't you?" said the one on his left with the pigtails.

"The guy who's dating Ko Yongha, right?" said the one on his right with the glasses.

Hikaru opened his mouth to stutter out a denial but was beaten to it by a high-pitched chorus of "Kyaah, Yongha-sama~!" from the surrounding females. His survival instinct kicked in all too late when they started jostling closer, star-struck and shiny eyed. A couple of them were even snapping his picture with their cell phone cameras and, worryingly, blocking off his nearest escape route.

"Excuse me," Hikaru said, being as polite as possible so as not to anger them, "but I'd like to leave now, please. I have to be somewhere."

He didn't in all honesty, but his desire to extract himself from such a potentially dangerous situation was definitely genuine.

"We just want to ask a few questions-"

"About Yongha-sama-"

"And we thought you might know the answers."

Hikaru raised his hands defensively. "I really have to go now," he said, but the inquisition had already begun.

"What is Yongha-sama's favourite food?" shouted one of the girls toward the back.

"What's his favourite song?" one of her friends wanted to know.

"Does he like sweets?"

"Where does he buy his suits?"

"What kind of cologne does he prefer?"

"Which side of the bed does he take?"

"Is he really a natural redhead?"

The more personal the questions grew the more mortified Hikaru became, and the more his inquisitors pressurised him the more his brain kept sending out signals to run away. He had just enough time to call out an apology before pushing through the crowd and running for the train station as fast as he his legs would carry him. Thankfully he wasn't chased, but that didn't stop him from looking over his shoulder ever few seconds until he'd reached safety.

~~

Later that evening, Akari called to ask for a tutoring game.

"You would not *believe* the kind of day I've had," said Hikaru as he waited for Akari to place her handicap stones. "I got attacked by a group of crazy girls after my game this afternoon. I thought that only happened to people like Touya."

"Hmm?"

Akari looked up at him thoughtfully from the board. It was only a foldable one and the stones that came with it were made out of plastic and not glass, but it still pleased Hikaru that she had actually gone out and bought her own equipment, cheap though it may have been. It showed that she had the proper motivation to improve her game by studying at home rather than just every once in a while at school. She even had a couple of tsumego books on her shelf alongside her various school texts.

"Isn't that a good thing?" she said. "You're finally getting a fan base."

"They weren't *my* fans," scowled Hikaru. "They were Yongha's. He has some seriously scary followers."

Akari blinked. "You don't read anything other than Weekly Go, do you?" she asked.

Hikaru was puzzled. "No. Why should I?"

"Oh," said Akari. "Now I get it."

She unfolded her legs and got up to walk over to her desk, Hikaru watching as she flipped through the small pile of publications she'd been collecting there. On the very top was an idol magazine, and under that was a copy of the latest Flowers and Dreams (Hikaru winced at the hideously girly title along with its equally girly serialised manga). He didn't catch the name of the newspaper that had been sitting at the bottom, but he couldn't miss the headline that blared 'Hani Meijin's Hot Romance! (His lover - the beautiful Nikaido Saori!)' from across the room.

"Here." Akari passed him the paper, and Hikaru took it. "Enlighten yourself."

Hikaru scanned the front page with interest, his eyebrows rising not at the so-called scandal but at the sight of such a familiar title. "That's a surprise. I never knew there was a Meijin in shougi."

"Did you think it was unique only to go?"

"Well... yeah. Is there a Meijin in other games, like how there's a king of nearly everything? You know, like a shaman king, or a pirate king?"

"Just turn the next three pages," Akari advised.

Hikaru did as he was told, nearly dropping the paper in shock when he came upon a couple of black and white pictures underneath a headline of 'Long Distance Love Affair Between Go Pros Continues!' They had obviously been taken - without his knowledge or permission - just three weeks ago, when he'd seen Yongha off at the airport. One of the pictures had been taken from behind, with Yongha pulling his suitcase with one hand and resting his other on Hikaru's backside, while the second had been taken just as Yongha had been about to board his plane. Hikaru remembered it clearly because Yongha had tried to kiss him, and he'd nearly blown up in his face. Hikaru had laid down a number of rules at the beginning of their relationship ("no dissing Shuusaku" and "no displays of public affection" being just two of them), but the most important one, the "keep the fact that we're having sex a secret" rule, had apparently been made in vain, at least if the article Akari had shown him was any proof.

"What the heck is this?!" cried Hikaru. "When did these pictures get taken? Forget about that, *why* were they taken, and how did they end up in print?"

"It's a gossip rag," said Akari. "It's their job to publish anything suspicious and sordid."

"But... but..." Hikaru stuttered, completely at a loss for words. "There are pictures of *me* in it! With *Yongha*!"

"They have interviews with people who know you too," Akari informed him. "There was one in a December edition from last year with that Kurata person after he won the Tengen title. He talked about you in it and said something about how he'd planned your affair right from the start at the Hokuto Cup. I think he claimed that he sent you into the Korean camp to seduce the secrets out of the enemy in order to win the championship."

"Kurata-san," Hikaru moaned, shaking his head miserably. "Did they catch him when he was drunk or was he really just that pumped up on his own success?"

"*Did* he force you to seduce the enemy?" Akari asked curiously.

"Of course he didn't! Even Kurata-san isn't that stupid. Maybe he's still mad because I lost his autograph..."

~~

The following Tuesday didn't do much to improve Hikaru's temperament as he accompanied Waya for their usual routine of eating out at McDonald's after their study session with Morishita, and he ignored Waya's look of concern as they took a table by the window.

"What's up?" said Waya, taking a sip of his soda. "It's not nice to glare so much. Didn't you see that poor cashier's expression when she asked you if you wanted fries with your burger? You're supposed to be chowing down on the food here, not looking like you're about to bite employees' heads off. Don't take your frustration out on people who are only doing their jobs. Why are you so annoyed?"

"There are newspapers dedicated solely to gossip," grumbled Hikaru.

"And?" Waya prompted. "You've just discovered this piece of information?"

"But they're printing *gossip*!" Hikaru said irritably.

"And?" repeated Waya. "If you think that's shocking, you should go online sometime. After all, the Internet isn't censored. I usually only visit the Net Go homepage and the Go Institute's main site. I don't hang out on the forums much anymore. They attract too many idiots."

Hikaru frowned in bewilderment. "What's a forum?"

"Don't you know anything?" said Waya in disbelief. "You're a teenager! How can you be so technologically incompetent?"

"You still haven't answered my question," Hikaru reminded him.

"A forum," said Waya, shaking his head, "is a place where people go to discuss news and such. Of course, some morons only turn up to spam or flame."

"Spam?" echoed Hikaru. "Flame?"

"For God's sake, buy a computer and learn this stuff for yourself," muttered Waya. "But, if you want to know about go related gossip, you'd better ask Kadowaki-san. One of his friends seems to like spreading rumours. He used to fancy you, by the way."

He let it slip so casually that he might have been talking about the weather or anything else that might have otherwise been of very little interest. "Man, I just barely managed to win my match today," "Do these hamburgers taste a little undercooked in your opinion?" and, "Oh yeah, Kadowaki-san fancies you," felt more than slightly jarring as far as changes in conversation topics went, but Waya didn't seem too perturbed by it.

"Whatever," said Hikaru. "Don't make my life more complicated than it already is."

"Is this about Ko Yongha?" asked Waya. "And I thought your obsession with Touya was scary enough. You just go from bad to worse, don't you?"

"How do you know about Yongha and me?" Hikaru demanded.

"Because it's all over the Internet?" shrugged Waya. "Honestly, why did you have to pick someone like him? Foreigners are nothing but trouble. You should get yourself a nice, local man who can look after you properly. Why don't you try dating Isumi-san? Your mom would probably approve of him. Everyone does. Kuwabara-sensei tried to grope him when they had their picture taken together for the Shin Shodan Series."

"Too many bad mental images," said Hikaru. "I don't need any additional trauma."

"Suit yourself," said Waya as he polished off the last of his fries.

~~

"When are you going to let me meet this boyfriend of yours?" Hikaru's mother asked one evening after dinner, startling Hikaru so much with the unexpected question that he nearly dropped his glass of juice.

"He's not my boyfriend!" he snapped automatically, but his mother simply frowned and laced her fingers together the way every parent did when they were about to enter serious conversation mode.

"You don't have to hide it," she said. "I know you need your privacy and I respect that fact, but I'd like you to at least tell me when you're seeing someone."

"Mom, it's none of your business!" Hikaru whined. "Besides, do you even know who you're talking about?"

"Of course I do," his mother replied. "The Korean player, right? Ko Yongha-kun? Akari-chan told me. She even showed me those newspapers."

Hikaru groaned and resisted the urge to smack his head repeatedly against the refrigerator door, but his mother wasn't finished yet.

"Honestly, I can't believe someone like you is getting in the gossip columns. Does playing go really make you that famous?"

"You don't have to read that stuff, let alone take it seriously," said Hikaru.

"But the photographs-"

"You don't have to look at those either!"

"I'm serious! You should be, too. You'll have to start being careful about how you act in public from now on if you're going to keep getting your picture taken like this. Are you having safe sex? You do know how to protect yourself, don't you?"

"Mom, stop embarrassing me!"

"Now look here, Hikaru," his mother said earnestly. "I may be a little old-fashioned, but I do remember what it's like to be young and in love. I don't really know that much about same-sex relationships, and that's why Akari-chan was kind enough to help me out. She lent me one of her DVD's, 'The Virgin Mary is Watching You'. I'm still not sure whether it was actually informative or not, but it was very genteel. It's so nice that homosexual people can have a proper courtship these days."

"Mom, it's just an anime," sighed Hikaru. "What's more, it was given to you by *Akari*. Do you remember that huge Card Captor Sakura obsession she had when she was in elementary school?"

"Yes, I remember," his mother said fondly. "You dressed up as the Chinese boy for her tenth birthday party. I still have the photos somewhere."

Hikaru made a mental note to find those pictures and destroy them, or at least hide them where they wouldn't ever see the light of day again. "Just... don't worry about it, okay? Everything will be fine, I promise."

"It's my job to worry about you. You're my only son and I love you with all my heart, but you're not very bright sometimes."

"Not very..." Hikaru pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off his oncoming headache. "Look, just forget it. We'll talk about this later." Much, much later if he had any say in the matter, not that it would probably stop his mother from being persistent.

~~

That night Hikaru called Yongha.

"Since when were you so popular?" were the first words out of his mouth as soon as Yongha picked up.

"I've always been popular," replied Yongha without missing a beat. "I receive much admiration and adoration."

"You're really modest about it, too," muttered Hikaru. He didn't feel the need to roll his eyes in accompaniment to his sarcastic statement, partly because Yongha couldn't see the act itself but mostly because Yongha's ego was about as unbreakable as bullet proof glass. More thick skinned than a rhino and vainer than a peacock, there wasn't really much that could put a dent in his confidence.

"Well?" said Yongha. "I assume you have a reason for calling without even asking how I am first."

"Fine," Hikaru relented. "How are you?"

"I'm very well, thank you. How are you?"

"I've been better. Can we move on now?"

"Yes, let's. I believe you were addressing my popularity status?"

"That's right. Why do you have so many female fans? Why are they starting to stalk me? What the heck do you talk about in your interviews?"

"About myself mostly. There are the standard questions about my career and my opinions on other go players, but then there are also the more unusual ones such as what I like to eat for breakfast and what my favourite position is. I had a very interesting and in depth discussion a while ago where the missionary position was compared to the upper right corner komoku opening. It's conventional but classic, although my personal preference is for something more adventurous, as I'm sure you'll know."

If it was possible to kill someone simply by thinking homicidal thoughts, Yongha would have keeled over and dropped dead already. "You talk about sex with me in your interviews?" Hikaru said through gritted teeth.

"I never mention you by name," Yongha said smoothly.

"That's not the point!" shouted Hikaru. "People only have to see the pictures in order to put two and two together! Speaking of which, were *you* aware that we apparently attract paparazzi?"

"Why do you think I put so much effort into making sure I look good whenever I step outdoors?"

Yes, that was the Yongha Hikaru knew, the one with no inhibitions, no common sense, and no regard for anybody other than himself. "Waya was right," he sighed. "Why on earth am I dating someone like you?"

"Because I am an amazing lover," Yongha answered promptly. "There is no one on this planet more capable of satisfying you with such excellent technique. You need someone powerful to take control."

"I'd like to find out where all this confidence comes from," said Hikaru. "I swear it runs deeper than the Mariana Trench. But more importantly, do you remember the first time we... well, you know?"

"Had sex? Yes, you were a virgin."

"And this is relevant how?"

"I like virgins."

Hikaru closed his eyes and counted to ten slowly inside his head. He wondered if he ought to blame the various hair styling products Yongha had been using over the years. They must have begun to seep in through his skull and scramble his brain, or at least the part that concerned itself with how to process reasonable and respectable responses.

"Anyway," Hikaru continued, having succeeded in controlling his irritation to a certain extent, "do you also remember when we agreed not to tell anyone about us?"

"That part was slightly less memorable," Yongha told him. "I didn't understand much Japanese back then. I usually nodded my head and answered yes to whatever you would say to me."

"That's it," Hikaru said flatly. "We're breaking up. I can't handle any more of this."

"Why are you so upset?" asked Yongha in confusion. "I've been faithful to you, haven't I?"

"You're only faithful to your go," Hikaru said in resignation.

"I'm not the one who insists on keeping secrets," said Yongha, sounding the most serious Hikaru had heard him since he'd picked up the phone.

Hikaru didn't want to admit it, but Yongha had a point. Their relationship was a strange one. Yongha might be lacking in the shame and decency department, but at least he made a habit of being truthful with Hikaru. If anything, he was sometimes *too* truthful, and that was when things got embarrassing. Hikaru wasn't obligated to share every little detail with Yongha just because they were lovers, but even so, he supposed he wasn't really being fair on him with regard to matters of secrecy.

"Hey, Yongha," he said quietly. "If I disappeared tomorrow without saying good bye or telling you why, what would you do?"

"I would be angry," said Yongha. "I would be angry and I would search for you. You won't escape from me so easily, not when I intend to play many more games with you from now on. There are also many more positions I wish to try with you. As I mentioned earlier, I am an exceptional lover. I am equally competent in go. What incentive would you have to disappear when I have all this to offer you?"

Hikaru actually laughed at that. "You're so stupid," he said.

"On the contrary, I am supremely intelligent," Yongha corrected. "I truly am a man of many talents."

Hikaru couldn't help but smile as he wondered how Yongha's idiocy could sometimes be as endearing as it was frustrating. "If you behave yourself properly, would you like to meet my mother next time you come over here to visit?" he asked. "She's already hinted at wanting to meet with you."

"I would like that very much," said Yongha. "Please make the necessary arrangements. I will bring her gifts of traditional food and expensive clothing."

"Do you really understand what this would involve?" said Hikaru, feeling rather touched by Yongha's sincerity and enthusiasm. If Yongha was actually willing to get serious and make a real commitment to him...

"I understand perfectly," said Yongha. "I hear there are parents in the Far East who gladly trade their daughters for camels. If your mother is to pass on rightful ownership to me, I must first give her something of equal monetary value in order to make the exchange."

His illusions shattered, Hikaru spent the next five minutes screaming that he was not an object to be bought or sold before finally slamming down the phone and deciding firmly that Yongha's stupidity was not frustrating or endearing, just plain infuriating.

 

End.


End file.
